


Sending SOS: Or, How Jack Learns to Walk the Line Between Love and Hate

by heartofnowhere



Category: All Time Low, Bandom, Music RPF, Panic! at the Disco
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-03-13
Updated: 2014-03-15
Packaged: 2018-01-15 14:49:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1308811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heartofnowhere/pseuds/heartofnowhere
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>High school AU in which Alex is the new kid, Jack is an idiot and there is random background Ryden because WHY NOT LOL<br/>--</p>
<p>“It’s just, the thing is, okay. I hate you so much. Oh my god, like, seriously. Fucking hate you. You’re so obnoxious and irritatingly pretentious all, ‘Oh, look at me, I’m Alex Gaskarth, I’m better than you.’ and it’s just like, fuck that noise, you know? I mean, who the hell do you think you are? You’re just the new kid, you should fucking act like the new kid, you know? I run this town, dude. Well, whatever. You don’t even go here. Haha, good one Jack. Where was I? Oh, yeah. I hate you. But also you have a really nice smile. And you’re just… fuck, you’re kind of the most genuinely nice person I’ve ever met, you know? It’s annoying. You’re just. I don’t know, Alex. It’s like, I didn’t realise I was bored and that something was missing until you came and started pissing me off all the time. I hate it. I think I hate it. But I’m not sure. You’re something.”</p>
<p>Alex looks up from his iPod, pulling out an earphone. He frowns and says, “What? Sorry, didn’t catch that.”</p>
<p>And Jack says, “Nothing,” and turns back to his math homework.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The first time Jack notices him, it’s not even a thing. It’s not even a thing, because he’s the new kid, Alex Gaskarth, and everyone notices him. So when Alex walks into homeroom on the first day back after the summer, waves and shyly says, “Hello, hi, I’m Alex Gaskarth. I’m from England,” it’s not weird that Jack is staring, because he’s the new kid, so everyone is staring.

It’s just that after that first introduction, only Jack seems to find it hard to stop.

 

“Why are you glaring at Alex?” asks Pete under his breath at lunch a few days later. They’re sitting on a bench outside in the sun, Pete, Jack, Gabe and Brendon, and today Alex is wearing a Green Day shirt and torn skinny jeans, his hair artfully tousled. He’s fallen in well to Barrington High, Jack has noticed, and is talking animatedly to a crowd of friends as they smile and laugh at whatever it is he’s saying. Jack wonders what he’s talking about, what he’s smiling at.

“I’m not. ’M not staring.” Jack mumbles, and doesn’t hear the rest of what Pete says because he’s busy not staring at Alex.

 

They’re in Chemistry class, and Jack is ignoring the cacophony of students doing chemistry stuff around him in favour of peering across the room at Alex. They’re supposed to be testing metals for oxides, or something, so the bunsen burners are out, and Jack would normally be all over that, because, hello, burning shit, but today his mind is elsewhere. Elsewhere being across the room, where Alex is wearing the weird Chemistry goggles and actually making them work. Jack feels something warm begin to burn in his chest and furrows his eyebrows in a frown.

“Um, hello, Earth to Jack?” Comes Brendon’s voice from beside him, and Jack finally registers the hand that’s been waving in front of his face, trying to catch his attention, and reluctantly tears his eyes away from Alex to look expectantly at his partner. “We kind of need to start today, dude.”

“Right, sorry, God. I was totally spacing out.” Brendon raises an eyebrow and smirks, and Jack pretends not to notice.

They’re packing up at the end of class when it happens. Brendon is chattering happily away in Jack’s ear as Jack picks up the tray of test tubes to put them back in the drawer, and later, later Jack would blame Brendon for distracting him, say that’s how it happened. Later still, he’d say it was fate and that God had meant for it to happen, and Alex would just laugh and accuse him of being a big dumb dramaqueen clutz. 

But in reality, what happens is this. Alex pulls his bag onto his back, laughing at something that weird kid with the scarves, Ryan, has just said, and Jack can’t hear what he’s saying, but suddenly Alex is looking right at him and his eyes are bright and warm and Jack vaguely remembers thinking oh, fuck, before he drops the tray of test tubes.

There’s a massive smash, and the class all turn to look at him. Jack feels himself flushing furiously. “Oops.” 

Jack has to stay behind with a dustpan and brush when the bell goes, Brendon leaving with a promise to save his seat on the bench, and falls to his knees with a sigh. It could have been worse, he thinks, as he sets to work. He didn’t get yelled at or anything, and didn’t even get detention. “Accidents happen,” the teacher had said gravely, handing him the broom before leaving too. So now Jack is alone in the Chemistry room, left to clear up the pieces and contemplate the tragedy of his life in terms of metaphors involving smashed test tubes.

Until he realises he isn’t alone.

Alex wears a pair of black, beaten up Converse sneakers to school every day. He wears them every day, and Jack totally hasn’t noticed because he totally hasn’t been staring. But Alex wears them every day, and he’s wearing them today, because they’re the shoes Jack sees from his crouched position on the floor and they’re Alex’s legs, and shit, shit shit shit shit, that’s totally Alex standing over him. 

“Um...” Jack says, looking up through his eyelashes, and raising his eyebrows.

Alex has his arms crossed and his hip cocked out to the side, and he’s wearing those beaten up Converses and an angry frown. “Why do you keep glaring at me?” 

Jack has learnt, over the years, to Not Care. Life, and more importantly, high school, has taught Jack this skill, and it's got him so far in life. The trick is to never let anyone know you care, be cool. Let people like you more than you like them. That's how he gets invited to all the parties, get asked out by all the girls. 

So when Alex is standing over Jack, tapping his Converse clad foot and raising an eyebrow impatiently, Jack should let it go.

Jack should say, "Sorry. I'll stop." Jack should say, "Dude, what the fuck, I haven't." Jack should say, "Hi! I'm Jack." Jack means to say anything, anything at all that isn't what he does say. And what he says is, 

"Because, fuck you, that's why." 

And basically it’s all downhill from there.

 

That night, Jack logs onto his computer as he’s curled up in bed and opens a google search. He types “how come some people just piss you off for no reason,” and taps his fingers impatiently, scrolling through the 77 million results before realising that he’s being an idiot, slamming the screen shut and rolling over to sleep.

He dreams of caramel coloured hair and a contagious laugh and strong, tanned arms around him.

He wakes up even angrier than he was before.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It’s irritating, Jack thinks as he makes his way down to lunch the next day, because everyone likes Alex. Everyone.

It’s irritating, Jack thinks as he makes his way down to lunch the next day, because everyone likes Alex. Everyone. The teachers merely shake their heads and smile indulgently when he forgets his homework, the lunch ladies give him free cupcakes because, "You're just so polite, dear, it's refreshing!" and Jack has even seen him sitting on the front steps of the school sharing a cigarette with Barrington's crazy janitor, McCracken, who has once killed a man (or so the legend goes.) 

Pretty much everyone in Jack’s group likes Alex, and apologised on his behalf for how rude he was to Alex in chemistry, which, okay, maybe Jack should apologise himself. It wasn’t like it was Alex’s fault that he smashed up the classroom and made himself look like a tool, was it? It’s with that thought, of how everyone likes Alex and maybe, maybe they could become friends that Jack steps out into the he sees Alex sitting in his spot.

And, okay, it's not like Jack's mad or anything. It's just a spot on the bench. There's plenty of room left on the seat. He could sit on the other side of Brendon. It's not a big deal.

But at the same time, it kind of is. Because there Alex sits, with Brendon and Pete and the others, telling yet another fucking story that must be super fucking hilarious judging by the volume of laughter coming from their table, making other kids turn and look. From this angle, Jack can see the envious stares of kids not included, like that Ryan kid with the scarves. From this angle, Jack feels a shooting pain in his chest and genuinely thinks he's having a heart attack, until he realises it's, shit, loneliness. He feels suddenly and painfully tied to that Ryan kid, sitting on the outskirts and watching their group, and it's like having a role in a play that he doesn't know the lines for. Like he never even saw the script. 

Or maybe, Jack considers, his script was stolen from him by some kid with caramel coloured hair and the most obnoxiously loud (cute) laugh ever.

Jack can't bring himself to go and sit over there, feeling like every pair of eyes in the world is staring at him, burning into his skin, Superman laser-style. And to think, he actually wanted to apologise for his outburst in the Chemistry room, Jack thinks, bitterly.

So instead, Jack turns on his heel and heads straight back inside, down the hall, and doesn't stop until he's sat in the furthest cubicle in a toilet on the far side of school, door slammed shut, eyes burning, the only sound coming from the hammering of his heart in his chest and Simple Plan blaring through his earphones, and tells himself he doesn't care until it stops hurting.

Can anybody hear me?  
Or am I talking to myself?  
My mind is running empty  
In the search for someone else  
Who doesn't look right through me.  
It's all just static in my head  
Can anybody tell me why I'm lonely like a satellite?

 

brendonboyd: you awake?  
JackExists69: yeah whats up b  
brendonboyd: did you see ryan’s hat today

Jack contemplates this, twisting his phone through his fingers as he lays in his darkened bedroom. Jack did see Ryan’s hat today, it was kind of hard to miss. Every now and then Brendon apparently decides he doesn’t want to ignore his blatant crush on the boy he has music class with, who’s in a band and has a tattoo and wears awesome vintage clothes and is just so cool, Jack, he’s so cool.

JackExists69: yh it reminded me of oliver twist  
brendonboyd: so cute right. why do you hate alex?

Jack contemplates this too, and in the end decides to close the conversation in favour of replying, quickly dropping a line about being too tired and having to get up early before putting his phone on charge and rolling over to stare at the stars stuck to the ceiling.

The thing is, Jack doesn't actually hate Alex. He has no reason to hate Alex. Hell, he's only spoken to the kid once, and even though the exchange ended abruptly and furiously with much storming out and curse muttering on Alex's part, Jack does, in fact, want to talk to Alex again.

Therein lies the problem.

 

“Hey, Jack,” Alex says, smiling hesitantly. His teeth are kind of big, Jack notes. Super white and even, and Jack glances away quickly, lest he do something dumb like smile back, or punch the guy in the face. “Do you mind if I sit here?” he asks as he slides into his seat at the lunch table. Everyone else stayed behind to finish up work and Brendon was off somewhere trying to catch Ryan’s eye so it was just the two of them at their bench. Jack took a moment to appreciate the fact that Alex had been here for like, a month now and they’d still only said a couple of awkwardly polite greetings since then (not including The Incident) and replied,

“Looks like you already are.” Awkward, Jack. So awkward.

Alex smiles again, eyebrows raised in a ‘you’re being really rude but I’m going to be polite anyway, fuck you’ look that Jack despises, loathes, and says, “You know, I think we got off on the wrong foot here, I’m Alex.”

“I know,” Jack says, not looking at him.

“Well-”

Jack stands up suddenly, shoving his chair back and clutching his coke can so hard some of it sloshes out onto the table. He says, “I have to go.” And leaves, not looking back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you like this chapter! :) xoxo have a great day, thanks for reading lol  
> PS the song is Astronaut by Simple Plan. Poor emo jack :(  
> PPS SHOUT OUT TO BERT FROM THE USED, YOU GET A COOKIE IF YOU SPOT HIM IN HERE (i laughed for LIKE TEN YEARS WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME)

**Author's Note:**

> OKAY SO THIS IS MY FIRST FIC and i don't really know what I'm doing I just have a lot of feels and idk so read if u want leave a comment if u want and PLEASE BE GENTLE WITH ME LOL  
> THANKS! have a great day xoxo


End file.
